Giving A Voice to the Little Guy

It is nice to see that common citizens are finally getting their voices heard by our leaders and not being heard in the form of mass emails, form letters, or phone drives. The members of government are reading our opinions, issues, and words in the form of blogs.

Many members of Congress have chosen to speak directly to the people by having their own blog diary. Barbara Boxer is one example of a leader using the Internet to reach her constituencies. Recently she used her Daily Kos dairy to start a petition protesting Condoleezza Rice’s nomination of Secretary of State. Her online petition was signed by 94,000 Americans across the country, giving Boxer a mandate to fight through the confirmation process. Although Rice was confirmed, she received 13 votes against, the largest number of votes against any Secretary of State since 1825.

I think that Boxer has the right idea. She has empowered citizens to directly take a stand for what they believe- a system of checks and balances often ignored. I hope that the online diary phenomenon continues to catch on throughout the Hill.

I Hate to Say I Told You So...But I Called It!

This is not my daily class post...

In past posts I have written about how the Detroit Pistons are unfairly covered by the media not getting the respect they deserve. I knew that the NBA was disappointed when the Pistons beat the Miami Heat, knowing that an NBA championship that did not have Shaq or Kobe playing would not receive the ratings they were looking for.

Well now I have proof. The NBA has received low ratings for the first game of the championship because of what they call a "star-free" series according to an article on CNN.com "Star Free Finals are Hurting the NBA." During the first game, less than 9% of the homes in the countries largest markets tuned into the game (Of course I was one of them), that is compared to 25% from the Lakers-Pistons first game last year. Not only are TV ratings low but merchandise sales are low also.

But the Pistons and Spurs have worked their way to the championship and surely one of them, if not many more, should be marketable enough to be an NBA superstar. Maybe the media should start recognizing the talent that is before them.

But for now I am just going to keep watching the games and rooting for my Pistons, even if they are ignored.